The present invention relates to a security camera system composed of a security camera and its controller, as well as a method for displaying pictures taken by the security camera, more particularly to a method for displaying a picture properly in response to an occurrence of an abnormal situation.
Conventionally, there have been sold security cameras with both camera and camera swivel base integrated in a doomed housing respectively. Because this type of cameras can be adjusted in both panning (horizontal rotation) and tilting (vertical rotation) directions in accordance with the rotation of the swivel base, they are referred to as composite cameras. Each of those composite cameras can be panned 360xc2x0 endlessly and tilted within 0xc2x0 to 90xc2x0, that is, rotated in both horizontal and vertical directions. Thus, this composite camera, when it is installed, for example, on the ceiling of public facilities, can take pictures in any desired direction.
However, such the composite camera, which can change its shooting direction freely, has been confronted with a problem that it is difficult to obviously judge a place where an abnormal situation occurs just from the monitored pictures.
Under such circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a security camera system that can solve such the conventional problem and display pictures so that a place, in the case where an abnormal situation occurs there, can be known easily, as well as a method for displaying pictures taken by the security camera.
In order to attain the above object, the security camera system composed of a security camera having more than one rotation axis and a controller for controlling the security camera according to the present invention provides the controller with moving picture detecting means for detecting a motion in the pictures taken by the security camera during an automatic monitoring operation. In addition, in the case when the moving picture detecting means detects a motion in the monitored pictures, the controller switches the operation of the security camera from automatic monitoring to still monitoring.
Furthermore, the controller is composed so as to hold both monitored pictures during an automatic monitoring operation and monitoring history data including the data of monitoring places and monitoring times.
Furthermore, the controller is provided with picture recognizing means for recognizing human faces looking up at the security camera from the monitored pictures. The faces recognized by the picture recognizing means and the shooting times are recorded.
Furthermore, the method for displaying pictures taken by the security camera according to the present invention enables information to be added to pictures taken by the security camera and displayed on the monitor screen in case the controller detects a motion among the pictures taken by the security camera.
Furthermore, the controller that holds monitored pictures taken by the security camera during an automatic monitoring operation and monitoring history including data of both monitoring places and monitoring times can replay a monitored picture of a monitoring place repetitively in the case when the place is selected from the monitoring history.
Consequently, a shooting point can be fixed so as to display the picture of the abnormal situation detected there in case a suspicious person, fire smoke, or the like is detected in the subject building at night during an automatic monitoring operation for shooting monitoring targets sequentially.
Furthermore, it is possible to recognize an occurrence of an abnormal situation by checking monitored pictures and monitoring history data held in the controller.
It is also possible to record human faces looking up at the security camera so as to check the security system.